HARTLEBURY’S MP used the words of Bewdley-born former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to close his address to Parliament after moving the Queen’s Speech.

Conservative Peter Luff was given the honour of addressing a packed House of Commons. He was chosen by the whips who, traditionally, select longstanding MP for the role.

Mr Luff, who has been a Worcestershire MP for 21 years and will stand down at the next general election, described it as an “honour and a privilege”.

“It was pretty nervewracking to begin with but when it began it was OK,” he said. “The house was very kind and friendly and sympathetic.”

The Mid Worcestershire MP talked about his constituency, as well as defence, engineering and parliamentary issues.

“The difficult thing was choosing what to leave out,” he said. “You have to be humorous and serious and there were a lot of good stories left on the cutting room floor.”

In closing the speech, Mr Luff said Mr Baldwin, who died in Stourport and was Prime Minister from 1923 to 1924, 1924 to 1929 and 1935 to 1937, “would have approved” of what the Coalition Government was trying to do.

Mr Luff told the Commons: “When Stanley Baldwin was leaving Downing Street after his last premiership, it is said he was stopped by a journalist.

The journalist asked ‘Will you be available to give your successor the benefit of your opinions?’ “Baldwin replied ‘No, when I leave, I leave. I am not going to speak to the captain on the bridge and I have no intention of spitting on the deck.’”

He added it was “sound advice” from “Worcesershire’s most celebrated politician”.